Grocery Shopping Made Easy

The last entry was more of a commentary on my mindset and meant to be inspirational. Now that you know where my head is at, I will get off my virtual soapbox and move on to other topics. Let’s start with one of my favorites – organizing. Small acts of organizing reap huge rewards, especially for grocery shopping.

• In my kitchen, I keep a long lined pad along with a pencil so that every time we run out of something, we write it on the list. (First ‘we’ means the whole family, second ‘we’ means my daughter and me.)

• Each week I plan my menus for the next 7 -10 days and write down any items that aren’t on hand. I try to plan my menus according to what is on sale at the grocery store that week. And yes, Leftovers are an entrée.

• When making the ‘menu items’ list, I separate the items into produce, meats, dairy, frozen, other food, bakery/deli, and household items. By separating them into store sections, it speeds up the shopping (no running from one side to the other and back) and I am less likely to forget something.

• I then add the items from my ongoing list. Be sure to ask everyone in the family if they need something added to the list.

• If you have more than one store to go to, keep a separate list for each.

Besides saving time at the store, I also find that I only have to go grocery shopping every 7 – 10 days.